


A dinner here is never second best!

by magicites



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: F/M, beauty and the beast au pretty much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 14:30:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2028555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicites/pseuds/magicites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time that Shiemi stayed with Rin for dinner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A dinner here is never second best!

**Author's Note:**

> After a (very tiny bit) of prodding from a friend, I decided to put this up here as well!
> 
> I really love Rin/Shiemi, gosh.

It had been…three months, maybe four, since they had met. Shiemi couldn’t really remember. The days started to blur together at some point. The memories were nothing more than warm moments and a vague, nice atmosphere now, like a sense of nostalgia that she couldn’t quite dig up.

What Shiemi _could_ remember was that Rin Okumura was a half-demon. He lived in a small cottage on the very outskirts of town with only a single familiar to keep him company. He never let her stay past late afternoon because other demons started prowling around as soon as the sun began to set, and he didn’t want her getting hurt on her way home.

Most importantly, Rin Okumura was under a curse. In the words of the sorceress who wanted to teach him a lesson about learning to open up, “if ya don’t get anyone to fall in love with you by the big twenty-one, you’re screwed! Have fun being a full demon, kid.”

She felt sorry for him, but there wasn’t much she could do about that! She did want to be his friend, though. He looked scary, but he really was a nice guy on the inside.

Shiemi stood in front of the door to his cottage, carefully holding the bag in her arms as if it was full of precious treasure. In a way, it kind of was. Rin had wanted fresh meat from the butcher for a while now, but the constant flames on his skin and his barbed tail tended to scare away villagers. The sharp teeth and cold-looking eyes didn’t help him any.

He didn’t scare her anymore. He was actually more scared of her getting burnt from his flames than she was! He always kept her at a distance just to keep her safe. It was a sweet gesture in theory, but she always felt a little guilty about it.

She knocked on the door, and waited with a cheerful smile. After a few moments of silence, her smile faltered. He usually shouted that he’d be coming right when he heard her voice.

She refused to let that deter her. “Rin!” She called out. “It’s Shiemi! I have a gift for you!”

She finally heard his familiar shout of, “coming!” Her smile quickly returned. The door opened a few moments later to reveal a disheveled mutant of a boy covered in blue flames.

His eyes instantly went to the bag in her arms. “What’s that?” He asked, pointing to the bag. “The gift?”

She nodded, and brought out a package of white paper. “It’s beef! I know you’ve wanted some for a while, and since the butcher had a sale today, I bought it for you! Take it.”

Rin burst into a huge smile, showing off each and every single razor-sharp tooth in his mouth. Anyone else would shy away, but to Shiemi, the smile was contagious. He was so excited!

“Thanks!” He took the package and brought it up to his nose. “Ooooh, it smells so good!” His mouth opened slightly, and a little bit of drool tried to leak out. His tail swished happily back and forth. He reminded her a little of a puppy.

“You’ll make something great with it, won’t you?”

“Hell yeah!” He looked over his shoulder to yell back into the cottage, “hey Kuro! Guess who’s having beef curry tonight!”

She heard an exuberant meow sound from somewhere inside, and couldn’t help but giggle. Even Kuro was happy.

“Hey…why don’t you stay for dinner?” Rin asked. “It doesn’t feel right to take your food and then kick you out. Besides, you haven’t lived until you’ve had my cooking.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! I’ll start it now so we can eat before sundown.” He turned around, and gestured for her to follow.

His cottage was small and a little messy, but that helped it feel comfortable and more-lived in. It had never been downright dirty, but she knew that her presence gave Rin more motivation to actually clean.

She spotted her influence throughout the cottage. Plants hung from the ceiling and lined the windowsill in the main room; both were there solely because of her. The green helped liven up the room, and gave Kuro something to nibble on whenever he got bored (not that Shiemi approved necessarily, but Rin rarely ever stopped him).

She also kept the laundry in check. If there was one thing Shiemi was good at that wasn’t gardening, it was laundry. Rin was decent at it, and he never asked her to do it, but she liked helping out. It gave her something to do on the days he dedicated to chores.

Rin disappeared into his tiny kitchen. The fireplace blocked her view, but she couldn’t resist calling out to him, “Rin! Would you like any help?”

“Huh? Oh, nah, it’s fine. I always do this by myself. It’s no big deal!”

She frowned, but ultimately relented. She wasn’t the best cook, but she could help prepare the food! She could chop vegetables or arrange food or wash dishes, or something…

She felt a brush of soft fur against her legs. Kuro looked up at her with wide, unblinking eyes. She crouched down to pet him, but something distracted him enough to make him wander into the kitchen after just a few seconds.

She heard a quiet mew, and the next thing she knew, Rin was standing outside the kitchen, looking at her strangely.

“Hey…are you ok?” He asked. “Kuro said that you didn’t look too good.”

“Oh!” Shiemi tensed up, the color rising to her face. “Um…well….I…” She swallowed, struggling for the right words. She clenched her fists, and forced them out of her mouth. She had no reason to be hesitant around Rin. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I’d really like to help! I’m not that good of a cook, but I can clean up or chop vegetables! I don’t want to just take advantage of your kindness and not do anything in return!”

His face twisted in confusion. “What are you talking about? You paid for the food!”

“It was on sale…”

“It was more than I could afford, that’s for sure.”

“Still…”

“Alright, alright, fine. Come here. How good are you at chopping potatoes?”

“Pretty ok!” She replied, following him into the kitchen. It was a tiny area that held more counter space than it did room to walk, but there was just enough room for the both of them to move around comfortably without tripping all over each other. He handed her a knife and a small basket full of peeled potatoes. She started her task immediately.

The silence was comfortable. Shiemi smiled to herself as she diced the potatoes. She couldn’t see Rin’s expression from where she was, but she was fairly certain that it was a smile as well. The warmth within his cottage made her feel completely at home, bringing back pleasant memories of her childhood. What kept her from delving fully into her nostalgia was that fact that Rin’s cottage always smelled like curry, not greenery. She could detect hints of the plants she left behind (sage and rosemary grew on the windowsill, sprawling all over the worn wood), but it wasn’t the heady smell of flora that she grew up with.

Time passed. The food was prepared, though a few silly mishaps made it take much longer than expected. After waiting around and aimlessly joking for a bit, it finished. This coincided with the all-too-familiar rays of sunlight shining through the window at just the right angle to attempt to blind them. Rin got up to adjust the blinds, but as he did, he said exactly what she didn’t want to hear.

“Hey, it’s getting late…”

“Yeah…maybe I should get going.”

His tail lowered to sweep along the floor, reminding her of the stray cats in the village. It swayed gently back and forth. “You don’t have to, you know.”

“I don’t!?”

“Well…I mean, you helped make dinner,” he muttered quietly. His tail moved faster along the ground in an endless cycle. Sweep to one side, and then the other. Back and forth. “It wouldn’t be fair to kick you out without giving you any.”

“I’d love to stay for dinner!” She blurted out.

“But I don’t want you to get hurt on your way home…” he trailed off, but after a few moments, his tail shot straight up in the air. He hopped around to face her with a wide grin. “Wait! What if you just stay here tonight? You can sleep in my bed. I’ll go somewhere else.”

“I-I don’t want to kick you out of your own bed!”

He laughed. “Don’t worry about that! I’ve slept in some pretty weird places before. C’mon, what do you say?”

She paused for a few seconds. Her mother would be worried, but Shiemi was an adult! She was plenty old enough to make her own decisions. If she wanted to stay the night at a demon’s house, then she had every right to! Her mother couldn’t stop her. She’d just have to apologize profusely in the morning when she returned.

Besides, she trusted Rin. He’d never do anything to hurt her. He looked scary, but he was a complete sweetheart.

“Hmm…sure!”

Rin nearly jumped into the air and cheered, but he stopped himself at the last possible moment. “Ok, you go sit down! I’ll serve the food,” Rin said. As he passed Kuro, he poked the small cat in the side with the tip of his tail. “You too, Kuro.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! I’m the host. I can’t make you work anymore without feeling like a complete ass.”

Shiemi took one of the two seats at the small, rounded table in a secluded corner of Rin’s cottage. She scratched Kuro’s chin when he jumped up on the table, and waited patiently for him to set the table. His plates were cracked and worn around the edges, but they were still cute – just white china with an abstract blue design around the edges. They suited him.

He even served her a plate full of curry, and gave a smaller one to Kuro. He sat down at the chair across from her with a loud, satisfied grunt. “Ok, dig in!”

She tried a little bit of the curry. Her tongue was overwhelmed by a powerful, slightly spicy flavor. It was delicious. Rin devoured it straight away, eating with all of the enthusiasm a teenaged demon could muster. Kuro ate just as happily.

Somehow, she was overcome with a wave of pure affection for this silly boy. It might not have been the kind of love he desperately needed, but it was something.

Maybe one day, it could turn into something different. Something he really needed. But for now, this was enough.


End file.
